Stand up and Be Counted GTA

Three years back this day a historic tripartite agreement between the Government of India, Government of West Bengal and the GJMM was signed at the picturesque Pintail resort on the outskirts of Siliguri.

There are at least two reasons why the agreement of 18 July 2011 won instant applause in the region making GJMM an unrivaled political outfit with an exclusive claim of representing popular aspirations. First, the accord was signed without dropping the demand for separate statehood for Gorkhaland. The agreement is also significant because through it was created GTA with the avowed objective of being “an autonomous self-governing body to administer the region so that the socio-economic, infrastructural, educational, cultural, and linguistic development is expedited and the ethnic identity of the Gorkhas established………..”

As per the terms of the agreement GTA could truly become an effective instrument of good governance and a precursor to full fledged statehood. Most of the subjects worth mentioning in the ‘State List’ under the constitution from land reforms and forests to social welfare, municipal administration and school as well as college education stood transferred from the government of West Bengal to the GTA. The state government was placed under a non-negotiable obligation to ensure that ‘the administrative, executive and financial powers in respect of the subjects transferred were vested in such a manner that the new body may function in an autonomous and effective way’. To ensure that the promised financial and administrative autonomy devolved on the GTA in right earnest arrangement for a review committee with representation, inter alia, of GTA and the central government was also made in clause 31 of the agreement.

Notwithstanding such elaborate safeguards the working of the GTA since its creation leaves much to be desired. As a governance institution it has failed to create a positive image for itself. Worse still, it has earned the public perception of being no more than a hot bed of cold feet. No wonder therefore that the erstwhile political adversaries of GJMM are working overtime to discredit GTA even going to the extent of asking for it to be scrapped.

Why hasn’t the GTA been able to deliver? The blame lies, though not in equal proportion with both the state government and the GTA leadership. As a dispassionate observer with no axe to grind against either party however I do believe that the apportionment of the blame tilts overwhelmingly in the direction of the state government who displayed total lack of commitment for making the experiment a success and ironically added to the problems putting political expediency above statecraft.

Whether it is the political obligation of reviewing and dropping cases registered against the activists during the course of agitation (clause 29) or the administrative obligation of setting up a school and college service commission (clause 22) or the financial obligation of providing funds for non-plan expenditure at fixed intervals (clause 18) action from the state government has been next to nil. At times we even witnessed instances of petty and petulant behavior of the state government on small matters like appointment of a Principal Secretary for the GTA.

GTA leadership too has its share of blame. Their major fault is that they have not made even suboptimal use of the safeguards built into he agreement against frequent flip-flops by the state government. They didn’t approach the review committee set up under clause 31 of the agreement or take the legal route for redressing their grievances against the state government. When you are in the business of governance you can’t just let things happen to you and keep crying. You have to be assertive for your rights even if you are against being aggressive. GTA’s failures however are to my mind attributable to lack of governance experience on the part of the leadership and absence of experienced bureaucratic support structure. The leadership has to take a call and find solution as these problems are not insurmountable.

Should the GTA be scrapped as some erstwhile politicians reluctant to retire gracefully are insisting? A big ‘no’ from my side. Why should you dump ‘an independent autonomous self governing body’ created explicitly for ‘establishing the ethnic identity of he Gorkhas’? Why should you scrap an institution born as a result of a tripartite agreement that acknowledges the legitimacy of the demand for statehood for Gorkhaland? Who gains if the sweeping powers of governance devolved on the GTA after a prolonged struggle and series of sacrifices revert back to the same state government who has been reluctant to part with these in the first place?

GTA has in the recent past taken some initiative for improving municipal administration in the region. With my experience of having guided and supervised municipal administration in 62 cantonments (more than 25 of which are hill stations) across the country I have good and sufficient reasons to differ from the road map suggested by the GTA executive in charge of municipal affairs I nevertheless welcome the fact that the institution has already started getting in to governance mode.

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With the tripartite talks failing in Uttar Kanya, the Joint Forum of Tea Trade Unions have called for a three-day bandh of all tea estates in Terai and Dooars in the plains and stopping of tea dispatch in all the tea gardens of the Hills. They also started a sit-in […]

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